


...And Everything In Between

by missmichellebelle



Series: Drabbles [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:38:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 9,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4861577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of unrelated Ereri drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leaderboard

**Author's Note:**

> **[ereriere](http://ereriere.tumblr.com/) prompted:** ereri + “I never thought you’d hurt me but I was wrong. You hurt me the most.” c: (love some angst)
> 
> for [this meme on tumblr](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/129742960695/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you): 96. “I never thought you’d hurt me but I was wrong. You hurt me the most.”
> 
> 377 words.
> 
> but I'm an asshole so it's not angsty in the slightest. 8D;

Eren glares at the leaderboard and stats like if he does it long enough, it will change. Or burst into flames. If Levi wasn’t sure of the absolute improbability of that ever happening, he might even give the possibility some weight. Eren’s stare is certainly intense enough.

“I trusted you,” Eren says, voice low and betrayed in a way that makes Levi sigh and roll his eyes.

“We were on different teams.” In fact, Eren had insisted on it. That it would be more  _fun_. “What did you expect?”

Eren frowns deeply.

“I thought you ‘didn’t do laser tag’,” Eren imitates in a voice that sounds nothing like Levi’s own, and Levi shrugs.

“I don’t. Doesn’t mean I never have, although it has been several years.” Levi’s not as young as he once was, and Eren had practically begged him to come laser tagging with his friends. Levi had felt ridiculous, like a chaperone at a children’s party, but Eren’s smile had been so bright and ecstatic that it had been hard to hold onto any of his reluctance. Not that he hadn’t stopped acting reluctant, but those are very different things.

“You slaughtered my team,” Eren retorts. “And me! I never thought you’d hurt me, but I was wrong.” Eren’s eyes get big in that puppy-dog way that they do. “You hurt me the most.”

“Eren.” Levi’s voice is thin and icy. “It’s  _laser tag_. I didn’t actually hurt you.”

“You shot me more than anyone else!” Eren throws one hand at the stats, waving it about frantically to emphasize his point.

“Again, I didn’t  _actually_  shoot you. I aimed a light at you and got points for it.”

“You’re supposed to go easy on me,” Eren whines, and Levi quirks an eyebrow in amusement. “I’m your boyfriend.”

“Since when has that led to any sort of preferential treatment?” Levi asks cooly, and Eren pouts at him. “Were you going easy on me?” He taunts, and Eren puffs up and averts his eyes. “That’s what I thought.”

“I demand a rematch,” Eren growls, eyes turning fiery with his determination again, and Levi  _tchs_  in his throat and shakes his head.

“Fine, brat. But I’m just going to kick your ass again.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”


	2. Subtle Kindness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is certain there was a warning in his childhood about sharing umbrellas with strangers, but he’s also pretty sure that none of them mentioned apocalyptic rain storms, so he disregards them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 3, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/136553242990/ereri-and-d-pretty-please)  
>  **word count:** 596 words  
>  **prompt:** d. subtle kindness  
>  **prompted by:** brambledown

“I don’t think it’s coming,” Eren says out loud, more for his benefit than the brooding stranger’s who is standing as far away from Eren as the bus stop shelter will allow. The rain is falling so hard the noise nearly hurts Eren’s ears, creating what appears to be an endless wall of water all around them and their plastic shelter. The bus he normally takes home from campus is nearly an hour late now, and Eren is pretty sure this storm is to blame.

He tentatively sticks his hand out, and then draws it back in just as quickly. It might just be water, but it’s coming down so fast and so hard it feels like ice cold needles striking his skin.

Eren bounces up on his toes, craning to look down the street in the darkness, but there are no headlights coming around the corner. Apparently even people who have the luxury of a car aren’t up for driving in this.

He really should have stayed at the library, and then maybe crash with Armin at his dorm.

It’s not that far of a walk from the bus stop, but it still means braving the rain. Then again, it’s fucking freezing, and he’d rather pass the next few hours inside than here.

Steeling himself for the rain, he tosses his hood over his head, and then pauses, glancing at the stranger.

“Is someone coming to get you?” He asks tentatively, and the stranger turns sharp, cold eyes on Eren. Christ, and Eren thought the _rain_  was bad. “I-I, it’s just, I’m a student, and I was going to wait the rain out in the library over there.” He points in the general direction of the library, no doubt nothing more than a shadowy blur through the rain. “I was just, um, offering to get you in. So you could at least wait inside. Or. Or something.”

Maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe this guy likes waiting at bus stops in the rain.

If nothing else, his stare makes Eren rethink nearly every decision he’s ever made in his life, and he squirms under it, feeling strangely vulnerable. Yeah, this was _definitely_  a bad idea.

“Don’t you have an umbrella?”

Eren blinks, looking around, before realizing the voice must have come from the stranger.

“Uh.” He pats his pockets, even though he knows he left the house without one this morning, despite his mother’s (and Mikasa’s) warnings against the impending storm. “No?”

“Idiot,” the stranger mutters, standing up. He’s shorter than Eren was expecting, which almost catches him off guard enough to forget the idiot comment.

Almost.

“Hey!” Eren bursts, anger flaring hot to his face, and he’s just about to revoke his offer, can feel it on his tongue, when he hears the familiar _click-whirl_  of an umbrella being opened.

“Well.” The stranger holds it out, leaving just enough room for Eren to squeeze his lanky form underneath it, and gives him a bored stare that looks simultaneously expectant. And annoyed. For someone with such a low range of facial expression, he certainly is expressive. “Where is this library of yours?”

Eren is certain there was a warning in his childhood about sharing umbrellas with strangers, but he’s also pretty sure that none of them mentioned apocalyptic rain storms, so he disregards them.

“Right.” He steps under it, feeling warmer just by being in such close proximity to another person, and then finds himself grabbing the metal shaft of the umbrella to point them in the right direction. “It’s, uh, it’s this way.”


	3. Coming Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you looking forward to once you return home?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 3, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/136558235025/for-the-minific-thingy-ereri-u-coming-home)  
>  **word count:** 763 words  
>  **prompt:**  
>  u. coming home  
>  **prompted by:** matsumoto-ruki

The entire trip home, Eren is greeted and kissed goodnight by familiar landmarks and horizons. Most of them he remembers from the trek out into the unknown sprawls of land. The strange rock formations that stuck out to him in his mind, a copse of trees where they made camp out of habit more than necessity, the lake that stretches so wide that he can’t see the other side and that he’d bathed in on a hot day. It’s like a countdown tally, each one bringing them closer to the Walls and closer to…

Well, Eren hesitates to call it home, but there is no other word for it. It is the place he returns to, the only place where his roots have stuck, although he always turns the soil loose and pulls them free before every expedition. He has no house, no permanent form of residence, but stays at Armin’s or Mikasa’s or rents a room elsewhere. The idea of tying himself to a place like that has always made him feel particularly caged.

He thinks, perhaps, home has come to mean something different to him over the years. Has come to mean more than a stash of memories of four walls with a roof.

The morning that they are retracing beaten pathways in the dirt, worn down by decades of Survey Corps missions, Eren’s horse falls into pace beside Levi’s and they ride in silence, the land painted with the faint light of the rising sun. Levi is no longer his Captain by rank, but as far as they’ve grown from that relationship, Eren has always found it hard to break from the title, even if they are closer to equals now than they once were.

“We’re almost back,” Eren says after an hour of riding. Not because he’s afraid to talk to Levi, not after everything, but he knows how much he dislikes speaking first thing in the morning.

Levi let’s out a hum of agreement, and Eren watches him carefully. There’s a heaviness in his shoulders that has grown over the years, piled on with the stress of the war and the long years that have stretched by since they first met. He has hints of wrinkles now, but still looks far too youthful for his age. But he’s tired. Maybe everyone else is still blind to it, but Eren knows it. Hanji knows it. And Eren is waiting for the day when Levi says _no_  to the next expedition. When he chooses a cup of tea and the cage of a house over the months spent on horseback and sleeping under the stars.

“What do you think you missed the most?” Eren asks, putting far more effort into keeping his voice even than he’d like to admit. He keeps his eyes trained on the horizon and hopes that Levi doesn’t echo the question. Eren realized as soon as he asked it that he didn’t miss much of anything.

“A good bath,” Levi replies without pause, and Eren curls forward in a life, the tension of returning seeping out of his shoulders. When he chances a look at Levi, he sees a small smile curled at the corner of his mouth, but it’s gone nearly as quickly as it was there. “And you?” Levi turns to meet his gaze, his eyes softer than they are when he looks at the others. “What are you looking forward to once you return home?”

Eren doesn’t look away, sure in his own horse’s footing, and thinks of how he already longs for the lakeshore and the mountain caves and scaling cliff sides. He misses nothing of civilization. Of law and order and _walls_.

Instead, he glances around. At the rest of his squad, both old and new. His friends, his family. He looks at Armin, trying hard to look alert despite how he’s practically falling asleep in his saddle. Of Mikasa, passing off some wisdom or another to one of her newer recruits who listens with rapt attention. Maybe not everyone is here, but enough of them are that Eren’s heart feels full enough, right then and there.

Then he turns his glance back to Levi, and imagines him staying behind. The stinging ache that lingers at the idea of getting on a horse and riding away from him.

Eren grins.

“You know,” he starts, breaking their staring contest and turning to the horizon again,.“The funny thing is, I don’t think I ever really left.” He gives a small shrug and a softer smile. “Pretty sure I’ve been home this whole time.”


	4. Le(vi)s Misérables

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heart full of love, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 5, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/136721042155/eren-with-the-song-empty-chairs-at-empty-tables)  
>  **word count:** 511 words  
>  **prompt:**  
>  z. make up your own: Eren, with the song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables"  
>  **prompted by:** brambledown

There comes a very trying time in Levi and Eren’s relationship, and that is the time when Eren gets suddenly and inexplicably obsessed with Les Misérables.

Levi doesn’t get it. He saw the movie, although more by force than his own free will, and in his opinion, there was too much singing. Which he expected. Because it’s a fucking musical. Which is why he hadn’t wanted to see it. But Eren had, and sometimes there are concessions that must be made.

But Levi doesn’t get it. And Eren doesn’t get how he doesn’t get it.

It has led to far too many stupid arguments for Levi’s taste, and sometimes he wonders if this is the penalty for dating someone so much younger than himself.

And then there are nights like tonight. When he unlocks the door to his apartment and Eren is already there, the smell of something delicious traveling through the warmly lit hallways from the kitchen.

Eren is singing along to unfortunately recognizable music, and Levi closes the door as quietly as he can, not wanting to disturb the moment of solitude Eren thinks he has.

“ _Phantom faces at the windows!_ ” Eren sings vehemently, directing a wooden spoon to the window over the kitchen sink as Levi watches silently from the doorway. “ _Phantom shadows on the floor!_ ” With a toss that Levi hardly approves of, the spoon lands in the kitchen sink with a _splunk_. Eren is rarely what Levi would brand as “flamboyant,” but as he strides across the kitchen and dramatically pushes a chair at the dining table into place, Levi can think of no other word.

“ _Empty chairs at empty tables!_ ” Eren begins to set the table, singing along dramatically to Levi’s flatware. “ _Where my friends will meet no more!_ ”

And that’s when Levi decides that as entertaining as this whole concert is, he would like _no more_  of this song. It must be fate, because he takes one step just as Eren performs a twirl.

“ _Oh my friends, my friends, don’t_ —Levi!” He breaks off as soon as he spots him, mouth splitting into a grin. There is no ounce of embarrassment at being caught mid dramatic reenactment. Not a hint of shame, or even any sign of being affronted at being quietly watched. “I didn’t hear you come in.”.

“I wonder why,” Levi retorts dryly, heading for Eren’s iPod and cutting Eddie Redmayne’s ballad of his fallen comrades short. A strange piece to sing to their dinner, although it is one of the catchier ones. “What’s for dinner, Marius?”

When Levi turns back to his boyfriend, Eren is closer, a playful smile on his face, and Levi doesn’t realize his mistake until Eren is winding his arms around Levi’s neck and starts to softly sing, “ _A heart full of love—_ ”

“No,” Levi responds flatly, and Eren laughs, popping a kiss against Levi’s forehead and pressing his nose into Levi’s hair.

It’s a reminder that as much as Levi bitches about dating someone his junior, he doesn’t _actually_  hate it. A heart full of love, indeed.


	5. Call Out Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Boyfriend. Yep. I’m his boyfriend. That’s why I’m calling out for him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 14, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/137312456290/lemonoclefox-prompted-12-things-you-said-when)  
>  **word count:** 646 words  
>  **prompt:** 12\. things you said when you thought i was asleep  
>  **prompted by:** lemonoclefox

Levi’s not sure what wakes him. More than likely the fever that has him tossing onto his side and throwing the large comforter off his over-heated body, longing for whatever chill might linger in the room. There is none, and the low rumble of the heater clues him onto why.

He’s disoriented, and tired, and, dear lord, _sticky_ , and just wants to close his eyes and disappear into sleep again. Maybe he would, if he wasn’t so fucking uncomfortable, and his mouth so dry, and seriously, what idiot turned on the heat in the first place?

“Hello, yes, um, I’m calling for Levi Ackerman.”

Speak of the fucking devil. Then again, Levi only has one roommate, so it wouldn’t have been a mystery for long. Unless he did it before… Passing out on the couch? _Ugh_. Certainly plausible, then. If his body didn’t feel like liquid lead, he’d probably attempt to go lay in his _real_ bed than on the furniture that he yells at Eren for even lounging on.

He’s never going to hear the end of it now.

“He isn’t feeling well today, so he won’t be coming into work.”

Levi blinks blearily at the TV set—it’s off, which is surprising, considering that Eren is in the apartment. That shithead lives for background noise and, apparently, hiking up their energy bill. Eren’s calling his work for him? He could have done that. Eventually. After sleeping for a few more hours, but he doesn’t need _Eren_ to do it for him.

He will tell him as much, when his mouth doesn’t feel like it’s glued together.

“Who am I?” Eren’s voice spikes a little bit, and he’s closer than Levi expected. He can hear Eren wearing a grove into the carpet as he paces, and if Levi’s head wasn’t pounding, he’d roll his eyes and tell Eren he’s being and overreactive idiot.

“I’m his, uh…”

_You’re my roommate. Just tell them you’re my—_

“Boyfriend. Yep. I’m his boyfriend. That’s why I’m calling out for him.”

Levi groans and buries his face into the pillow (how the fuck did his pillow get here?) he’s resting on. _Boyfriend?_ Why the fuck would Eren say _that?_ Does he even know what sort of shit storm he just started?

A hand presses onto his arm, and Levi stills at the touch. It’s too warm, but the physicality of it is somehow comforting. Eren rubs Levi’s arm up and down, and the back of his fingers are cool when they find Levi’s forehead and press against it.

“Uh huh, yeah, I’ll let him know, absolutely, thank you!” Eren’s voice dips closer and closer to a whisper as he finishes the call, and Levi only knows he’s done when there’s a soft sigh. “You pushed your blankets off,” Eren muses quietly, his voice rounded and full and… Fond. “Probably because you’re burning up.”

Levi is no actor, but he feels he deserves an award for how still he keeps himself as Eren comes around the couch and presumably kneels before him. Levi can’t see him with his eyes shut once more, but it’s hard for him to not know someone is there, even with his senses as bogged down by his cold as they are.

“I’ll make you some soup and tea when you wake up.” There’s a quality to Eren’s voice that is distinctly lacking when he speaks to Levi while he’s conscious. Levi is pretty sure. It might also be the fever talking.

A weight settles over Levi again, much lighter than the comforter that had been trapping him in hell a few minutes before, and then he feels Eren’s fingers brush against his forehead again, sweeping hair away from the skin that Eren then presses a very gentle kiss against.

Levi’s heart feels pulled taught to the point of aching as Eren walks away, and his eyes flutter behind his eyelids.

Boyfriend.

Was it Levi’s cold, or had he heard a certain amount of longing in the word?


	6. Floor Drains are Super Romantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If you don’t stop staring at me, I’ll make you mop under the fridges, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 14, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/137315001795/ereri-20-things-you-said-that-i-wasnt-meant-to)  
>  **word count:** 701 words  
>  **prompt:** 20\. things you said that i wasn’t meant to hear  
>  **prompted by:** christmasrivers

“I wish he didn’t exist.”

Eren stops just short of turning the corner, still meticulously drying his hands with paper towels from his trip to the bathroom. That was Levi’s voice which—isn’t surprising. Levi says much more harmful things about customers on a regular basis.

“No you don’t,” Hanji replies in a sing-song, and Eren carefully peeks around the corner. Hanji is still standing dutifully at the register, but Eren is surprised to find Levi nearly bent in half over the counter. He looks a few seconds away from just planting his face into the counter entirely, except that is an incredibly un-Levi thing to do.

Eren doesn’t move an inch, just in case he gets to see Levi do something particularly un-Levi like. It’s such a rare opportunity, he doesn’t want to waste it.

“Did you hear him? Did you even fucking _hear_  him, Hanji?” Levi snaps, and he actually looks kind of miserable. Eren’s curious about what sort of horrid customer could have come up in his absence, and is half thankful he wasn’t there to deal with it, and half regretful he wasn’t there to back Levi up.

(He’s sure, whatever the matter was, Levi was in the right.

He always is.)

Hanji hums noncommittally, looking particularly bored by the conversation, like they’ve heard it a hundred times, and it makes Eren feel a little jealous. Levi would never complain to _him_  like that. Their friendship had gotten off to a rocky enough start as is, and every second of vulnerability Levi shares is like a gift, of course, but Eren still wishes that Levi was more comfortable around him. Trusted him.

“He offered to clean the floor drains for me,” Levi says through gritted teeth, and Eren’s entire train of thought derails into a chasm. Wait.

“Because I—”

“—do them every single week, I know.” Hanji sighs and pierces Levi with a look. “You’re the only person on the planet who finds floor drains _romantic_.” Hanji’s bored look lights up immediately into one of glee, and they pinch Levi’s cheek with the expected amount of resistance. “Adorable.”

“Fuck you,” Levi hisses, and then pushes up off the counter. “What happened to him, anyway?” Eren slams back around the corner just before Levi can look in his direction, heart-hammering in his chest. “Did he fall the fuck in?”

“Why don’t you go and rescue him” Hanji wheedles, sweetly, and Levi doesn’t respond (at least, not verbally). Eren takes a few moments, trying to clear the sudden jumble in his head—to make sense of it, even.

Because _he’s_  the one that offered to clean the floor drains? And Levi had said something about wishing he didn’t exist, and then Hanji had said something about romance, and that sounds a lot like—

“What are you doing?”

“ _Jesus—!_ ” Eren’s back slams into the wall he’s glued himself to, _hard_ , and meets Levi’s bored expression with his startled one.

“Were you trying to squeeze an extra break out of your shift or something?” Levi drawls, clearly not amused or approving of the idea, and Eren just… Just stares. Can’t bring himself to do anything else. Does Levi… _Like_  him?

“What?” Levi looks more and more uncomfortable the longer Eren looks at him, and actually glances away, which gives Eren a rather good look at the pinch of color on Levi’s cheek. It could be from where Hanji grabbed it, but… Eren doesn’t think so. “Look, are you going to clean the drains or not?” Levi snaps, meeting Eren’s stare again, and Eren gives one dumb nod.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m—yeah. I’m going.” Eren stumbles past Levi, and can feel Hanji’s eyes on him as he disappears into the back. When Levi appears and starts to walk him through the process, Eren tries his best to act the way he always does and not like he just found out Levi could possibly, _maybe_ , like him. In a romantic sort of way.

 _Shit_.

Eren didn’t even think Levi liked him as a _person_ , much less anything beyond that.

“If you don’t stop staring at me, I’ll make you mop under the fridges, too,” Levi threatens, obviously uncomfortable with the attention. It’s a good threat, and Eren tries, he _really_ , really does, but, well… He ends up mopping under the fridges when he finishes with the drains.


	7. Ikea Table

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They share the table because they have to, but they don’t look at one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [january 20, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/137713102275/13-ereri)  
>  **word count:** 672 words  
>  **prompt:** 13\. things you said at the kitchen table  
>  **prompted by:** shulkie

It’s a tiny table.

Then again, it’s an incredibly small kitchen, and they had picked this table out at IKEA because it would _fit_. Levi had thought it was a stupid idea, and Eren had linked their arms and brought their sides flush together and had said, very quietly, that he liked being close to Levi.

It had taken them three hours to put together and they had eaten Chinese take-out around the pieces, Eren laughing and Levi griping about how he hated everything about it. But in the morning Eren used their stove for the first time and they ate pancakes with their legs wound together beneath the new piece of furniture, and Levi had eaten in silence and not said anything about how he was pretty sure that that moment is what happiness is supposed to be.

Their legs don’t touch under the table now. Eren’s chair is pushed so far back it’s pressed against the wall, and Levi keeps his ankles tucked neatly. They share the table because they have to, but they don’t look at one another. One cup of coffee, one sip taken but now completely cold, and a cup of tea, empty save for the sachet, and Levi stares at the lump of soggy tea leaves with guilt in the pit of his stomach as his finger traces the porcelain rim.

Less than a yard of laminate stretches between them—in fact, there isn’t room for anything more—and it’s a distance that Levi has crossed many times before. But, for some reason, he can’t make his arm reach and close the distance. He can’t breach the tension that’s been building between them for days, can’t ignore the words stacked up to the ceiling that are going completely unsaid.

He wishes he had more tea. Food. Fuck, his _phone_. Anything to distract him from the monster they aren’t addressing.

Eren stares out the window, hands wrapped tightly around his coffee cup and face sombre as he’s washed over with the brightening light of morning. He has bedhead—an aching reminder that Levi didn’t see it first thing when he opened his eyes. Of how many times Eren had pulled his fingers through it in frustration and anger before he disappeared behind slammed doors the night before.

He looks beautiful, and Levi swallows around the lump in his throat and looks away and thinks, _Am I losing him?_

“I’m still mad,” Eren says, and his voice is rough but quiet. Levi thinks of the tears he had seen and done nothing about. Eren still stares out the window, eyebrow pinched, and the remnants of the anger he’d felt the night before crackle in Levi’s stomach, trying to ignite again. Trying to drown out his reason and panic in some dying attempt to be _in the right_ , like that even fucking _means_  something.

Levi grits his teeth and does his best to ignore it.

“I’m still—” Eren grunts, and Levi understands his frustration. There’s so much to say that it’s impossible to say anything at all. He tugs his hand through his hair again, shoulders tight as he struggles, and then his arm falls on the table, hand palm up halfway across the kitchen table chasm between them.

Eren looks at him.

“I still love you.” The words come out clumsy and desperate and hurt, and even if Levi wants to fight it, even if he wants to _deny_  it, he _did_  that. The look in Eren’s eyes, the one he can’t even meet—Levi _put_  it there. “You know that, right?”

It’s a gift. It’s an offering. Eren’s palm rests between them like a compromise, like a second chance, like a _promise_. And all Levi has to do is take it. To have the courage to reach across what appears to him to be an impossible distance.

To be able to _give_  himself another chance.

His hand is cold and heavy in Eren’s, and Eren’s fingers immediately tighten around it, and Levi feels like he’s stopped holding his breath.

“I know.”


	8. Valentine's Day Makes Me Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I threw up in a planter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [february 13, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/139271239375/the-valentine-drabbel-thingy-ereri-and-their)  
>  **word count:** 469 words  
>  **prompt:** Ereri and their valentine ending/beginning at the hospital (your choice).  
>  **prompted by:** the-little-random-me

They never even make it to the restaurant. Hell, they never even make it to the car. One second, Eren is holding onto Levi’s hand a little too tightly, and the next he’s throwing up into the planter in front of their apartment building. He’s shaking and shuddering and his body slowly lowers closer and closer to the cement, and Levi stays close enough to keep a hand pressed to Eren’s spine.

He’s by no means a sympathy vomiter, and he loves Eren, but that doesn’t mean he wants to get up close and personal with the slightly-digested contents of his stomach.

The thing is, Levi’s known something has been wrong for hours now. Has seen the way Eren would suddenly stop, catching all of his weight on a doorframe or the back of the couch. Closing his eyes as if in pain. And yet every time Levi had broached the subject of him being okay, Eren had insisted he was _fine, really_.

Clearly, that had been a bold-faced lie.

“I threw up in a planter,” Eren wails as Levi helps him into the car.

“Yes you did.” He buckles him in. “Here’s hoping you don’t throw up in the car.”

Eren is silent until the car is in motion again, head lolled to the side on the seat so he can stare at Levi through miserable eyes. There are tear stains on his cheeks, and Levi can’t stop himself from reaching out and touching one of them.

“If I have to hurl, I’ll let you know. You can pull over.” His voice sounds weaker and strained, and Levi frowns at the windshield.

“Lovely,” he responds, voice dry, but holds one of his hands out across the center console in invitation. Eren grabs onto it hungrily—he always craves physical comfort when he’s sick or in pain.

It’s ten minutes of silence that is periodically interrupted by grumbles and moans from Eren’s side of the car, each one accompanied by a squeeze to Levi’s fingers, when Eren asks, “Wait, where are we going?”

“Urgent Care.”

If Eren had his usual amount of energy, Levi is sure there would have been a more dramatic reaction. As it were, Eren just shakes Levi’s hand around in protest.

“We have a reservation!” He insists.

“Then we’re going to miss it.”

“But it’s _Valentine’s Day_.”

“Eren, you threw up where our neighbor’s dog takes its morning shits.” Levi levels Eren with a glare, hoping that signals the end of his whining. “We can celebrate Valentine’s Day when you’re not projectile vomiting.”

“It wasn’t—” Eren’s body lurches, and Levi’s hand tightens in concern. “Levi, pull over. Oh god, pull over, pull over, fuck.”

A planter and then the curb outside a Denny’s. When Eren feels better, Levi isn’t going to let him live this down.


	9. At Least It Can't Get Any Worse, Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We’re on the side of a highway two hours from home and it’s nearly midnight. Are you really still trying to look on the bright side?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [july 9, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/147163494680/without-looking-synstruck-prompted-me)  
>  **word count:** 640 words  
>  **prompt:** 17\. things you said that i wish you hadn’t  
>  **prompted by: synstruck**
> 
> part of the [it's dangerous to go alone (take this)](http://archiveofourown.org/series/445441) verse

The hood of Eren’s car is popped, and they’re shoulder to shoulder, staring at the inner-workings of the 1980 Volvo 240.

It might as well be fucking _astrophysics_ , for all that Levi knows about fucking car engines. Especially ones that are older than _he_ is.

“At least it stopped smoking,” Eren mutters, ever the optimist, and Levi stops leaning over the meat of the car just enough to level him with a glare.

“We’re on the side of a highway two hours from home and it’s nearly midnight. Are you really still trying to look on the bright side?” It’s an admirable trait, but there’s a time and a place for it— _now_ absolutely not being one of them. Levi is tired, and regretting that he wan’t persistent about him driving.

He’s literally never getting in this bucket Eren calls a car ever again.

“Okay, _yeah_ , but we have a tow on the way,” Eren points out, stepping back from the hood as Levi closes it. It does no good to have it open—staring at it isn’t exactly going to _make_ Levi suddenly understand how engines work (and why they suddenly stop working).

(Aside from the obvious answer of Eren’s car just being _too fucking old_ ).

“And I’m pretty sure Ganondorf is going to make it.” Eren pats the car with the same amount of affection one would show a loyal dog, and it frustrates Levi beyond measure. This junk pile literally just stranded them, and Eren will still probably defend it to his grave.

Which is convenient, seeing as this fucking car will probably put him there.

When it’s clear that Eren’s attempts at making light of the situation are doing nothing to ease Levi’s sour mood, he adopts a sheepish expression and utters the one thing that should never, ever be said in a horrible situation.

“At least it can’t get any worse, right?”

To Eren’s credit, the sky does not right in that moment split with lightning and thunder and start pouring buckets of rain of them. It takes a few minutes of them leaning against the car to realize that the heavy mist wetting their skin is more than just the marine fog settled over the coastline. In fact, it doesn’t take long at all for what they had mistaken for mist to turn into big, fat, awful raindrops.

Levi is peeling himself out of his sweater in the passenger seat of the car while the rain makes a racket against the roof when Eren mumbles a sheepish, “My bad.”

It might be the late hour, or how devastatingly tired Levi is, or how his clothes are soaked all the way through to his skin and he’ll probably wake up with pneumonia or something tomorrow. Either way, he must be cracking, because his head thunks back against the horrendously upholstered headrest and he starts uncontrollably laughing.

“Levi,” Eren starts, voice stressed with concern, and Levi just covers his damp face with his also damp hand and shakes his head, his laughter like waves of rolling chuckles crashing up his throat. “ _Levi_ ,” Eren says again, but this time he sounds closer to laughing himself, more than being worried about Levi suffocating or having a legitimate break from sanity.

(Both liable options, really).

“You’re so fucking stupid,” Levi manages through a smile when his laughter has calmed down enough, the duration of it making his cheeks ache. Eren is still grinning, seeming to take no offense in Levi’s non-biting insult. “Fucking _idiot_.” Still more fond than cruel.

Which is probably why Eren just settles his shoulder against the driver’s side window with an unaffected shrug and says, “An idiot that can _make it rain_.”

And then they’re both laughing again, and Levi figures there is something to be said for ending a bad day on a good note.


	10. Pretty Sure "Sweat" Isn't an Ingredient in Baking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “They look like shit. _Literally_. They look like little piles of shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [july 30, 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/148188035645/pretty-sure-sweat-isnt-an-ingredient-in-baking)  
>  **word count:** 500 words  
> 

“Holy fuck, are you _baking?_ ”

Despite his best efforts, Eren’s hands are covered in smears of dark brown dough, the unfortunate and (to his knowledge) unavoidable mess that comes from piping. He’s still carefully cradling the bag of dough when he glances over his shoulder at Levi, who’s arrival had been announced by the scratch of his key against the deadbolt and underlined by the door slamming shut unaided behind him.

Eren blinks at him, eyes moving in an overtly-obvious sweep of the kitchen, as if to highlight the bags of sugar and flour sitting on the counter, or the excessive amount of dirty bowls, or the telling sound of their ancient oven.

“Uh.” Eren should probably say something more clever than that, but before he can say something like, _No, I’m doing yoga_ , Levi interrupts him.

“It’s nearly a hundred degrees outside,” Levi tells him, like Eren doesn’t know. Like Eren didn’t bring two of their four fans into the kitchen, or like he isn’t baking in just his boxers and a tank top. On top of that, Eren is nearly swimming in a pool of his own sweat. Sweat is literally _dripping_  down his spine to the small of his back, is gathered behind his knees, is clinging to the skin on his throat. Fuck, his hair even feels _wet_ , which is just too gross to think about.

“Yeah, and?” Eren turns back to his piping, teeth digging into his bottom lip as he works at making each dollop on the parchment paper the same size and height. “I was bored. We had Oreos and half-and-half.” He shrugs with one shoulder, wiping at his forehead with the back of his hand and knowing instantly that he just smudged some of the Oreo cookie dough near his left eyebrow.

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with this.”

Despite the fact that the kitchen is no doubt like a boiler room, Levi’s curiosity has drawn him in as he moves to stand nearly next to Eren—close enough to see what he’s working on, but far enough away that he won’t end up with any sudden flour streaks on his clothes.

“Cookies and cream puffs,” Eren explains, feeling the unasked question in the air between them.

“They look like shit.” Levi blinks rapidly, mouth thinning defensively when Eren looks at him. “ _Literally_. They look like little piles of shit.”

Eren laughs.

“Yeah. They’ll be puffs after I bake them, though.” Eren maneuvers around Levi to slide the tray full of Oreo poops into the oven, looking forward to the moment they’re done and he can shut the fucking heat demon _off_. “You should go get changed. These take about twenty minutes, but afterwards, you can help me fill them.”

“With what?”

“Custard.” Duh. What else do you fill cream puffs with?

Levi is eyeing him warily, eyes casting around their chaotic sauna of a kitchen doubtfully before coming back to land on the smear of chocolate on Eren’s face.

He has a napkin in his hand so quickly that it looks like he pulled it out of thin air (when in reality it probably came from one of his pockets) and reaches to wipe the dough away. “That sounds… Messy.”

“Oh.” Eren grins, catching Levi’s wrist and transferring sweat and sticky dough to his skin. “It is.”


	11. Scarves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was said like a compulsion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [august 26 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/149539193355/too-quick-mumbled-into-your-scarf-late-autumn)  
>  **word count:** 632 words  
>  **prompt:** 30\. too quick, mumbled into your scarf + late autumn mood  
>  **prompted by:** brambledown
> 
> set in the same universe as [acute myocardial infarction](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5058895)

“How many scarves do you have?”

Eren laughs into the butterscotch plaid swath of fabric around his throat, and his smile is still lingering when he holds out a steaming cup of tea. It’s so ritual for them by now that Levi only realizes he’s taken it when the warmth is seeping into his work-worn fingers.

“Admittedly, a lot.”

Levi sips his tea and tries not to watch the pleased look soften Eren’s eyes. Eren seems made for autumn weather, with the way the chill weather brightens the colors in his eyes, or how he takes to things like knit sweaters and chunky cardigans and mittens like a duck to water.

Levi sips his tea again, and reminds himself not to think that way.

“My sister is a pretty overzealous knitter, although I have to admit this one was a gift.” His fingers play with the ends of his scarf. “How many scarves do _you_  have?” He teases, and falls easily into the rhythm of Levi’s stride as he starts across the parking lot.

“None.” Levi doesn’t spend enough time outdoors these days to find any worth in investing in that sort of thing. It’s not that he has an aversion to the cold, just that his free hours of the day don’t exactly lend well to leisurely walks through a park painted red and orange and gold.

(He’s seen them, though, in Eren’s photos. Sometimes it feels like he can still experience the world he knows he’s missing through the beauty and vividness of Eren’s photos.)

“Well, it _could_  have been one.” Eren bumps his shoulder against Levi, and Levi shoots him a dark look that is probably far less ineffective than it usually would be since he’s so fucking exhausted.

With the way Eren laughs afterwards, he assumes that to be the case.

“You’re so stubborn.” The words are rounded with fondness, and there’s a bite of a warning on Levi’s tongue— _Eren, we’ve talked about this, you know I’m not interested in that_ —when a quiet rush of words disappears into the thick fabric of Eren’s scarf.

The warning falls back down Levi’s throat, taking hold of his heart and dragging it down to his ankles.

“You want to walk home, shit head?” Even to Levi, the words feel stilted and ashen, like he opened his mouth and the wrong ones fell out. _What did you say?_  sits there, and he lets it. He has no intention of voicing the question.

“Jeez, and you’re supposed to be a doctor. What if I caught pneumonia? Then what?” They’re at the car, the walk feeling simultaneously long and short like it always does, and Eren is pouting at him over the roof of the sedan.

“Then I would have one less thing to worry about.”

There was a time when this sort of response would have drawn the wounded deer look out of Eren, but now it’s just a pop of laughter that echoes through the dark, empty parking lot.

“Nah, you’d miss me,” Eren responds, cheekily, and then he’s opening the car door and getting it.

Levi pauses for just a moment, hand gripping the car handle in front of him so tightly that it brings back all the tension the chamomile had been slowly unwinding.

 _I love you_.

He can still fucking see the way Eren had closed his eyes and turned his head, how he’d muttered it like a secret more than a confession.

It wasn’t meant for Levi to hear.

It was said like a compulsion. Like the laugh that had sprung out of Eren just moments ago. Something that couldn’t be controlled. Something that just had to happen.

Levi shakes his head and opens the door, and wonders why this kid has to make everything so fucking complicated.


	12. Daisy Chain Selfies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did you take selfies of us when we were fucking _kissing?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [august 26 2016](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/149544065915/12-ereri)  
>  **word count:** 984 words  
>  **prompt:** 12\. when we lay together on the fresh spring grass.  
>  **prompted by:** shulkie

Despite the fact that Levi _knows_  none of the grass is actually touching the skin of his back through his t-shirt, it still _feels_  like it is. Like the damp grass is just poking holes through the cotton and letting hosts of bugs find their way inside.

The thought sends a rippling shudder through his body, and he attempts to push himself up and off the grass when he receives a firm push to the sternum and a laughed, “I told you not to move.”

“You could have brought a blanket,” Levi mumbles, slumping back into the earth and the grass miserably. He has no idea what Eren is doing, sitting up and turned away, but he wishes the idiot would finish whatever the fuck it is so Levi could sit (preferably on a bench somewhere).

He also wishes he wasn’t so stupidly, sickeningly in love with said idiot, which is the only reason he’s actually listening to him.

“I could have,” Eren hums in agreement, and Levi rolls his eyes. In love with an idiot, indeed.

And as soon as Eren finds out, he’s _never_  going to let Levi live it down.

(Or he’s not going to feel the same way and Levi’s entire life as he currently knows it will shatter like Fine China against a wall. He hasn’t really decided which one is the likelier outcome yet.)

“Okay, okay, okay.” Eren sounds practically giddy with whatever it is he’s about to reveal. “Close your eyes.”

“Eren—”

“Come on, just real quick, I promise.”

Levi sighs, mutters a _fine_ , and complies. After a few seconds in which Levi could only guess Eren is double-checking to make sure he’s not peaking, Levi feels something light brush at the crown of his hair before he has a sudden, crushing armful of over-excited boyfriend.

“ _Oof_.” He opens his eyes without the green light, but Eren doesn’t seem to mind, if his wide grin and smile-crinkled eyes are anything to go by. “A little warning the next time you try to collapse my fucking lungs, shit.”

“Sorry.” Eren doesn’t sound sorry at all.

“So where is this fucking surprise you promised me?” Levi glances around, wishing Eren wasn’t pinning him into the grass so he could get up (but also sort of enjoying the feeling of _Eren fucking pinning him to the grass_ ).

“I’ll show you.” Eren’s smile blooms into something different, something softer, something fond. Levi is expecting some sort of reveal, but instead Eren leans down and kisses him. It’s a little confusing, but Levi isn’t exactly about to question it.

Unless the kiss was the surprise. He normally wouldn’t complain, but if Eren was just going to make out with him in the middle of this random park, he didn’t need to call it a surprise and leave Levi in suspense for twenty fucking minutes.

When it ends, Eren rubs the tip of his nose to Levi’s, huffing a breathy laugh between their lips, and then says, “Okay, let’s see how it turned out.” He falls back against the ground, neck pillowed by Levi’s arm, and the only sound Levi manages is the vastly ineloquent, “ _Huh?_ ”

“Okay, most of these are shit, but this one is perfect and it’s my new phone wallpaper.”

It takes maybe a few moments too long for the sentence to fully make sense (Levi blames the kissing), but when it does he to stare at Eren in disbelief.

“Did you take selfies of us when we were fucking _kissing_?”

“Yep!” Not even a hint of shame, or remorse. Instead, he smiles, and then tilts his phone in Levi’s direction. It’s such an obvious reminder of their age gap, and Levi feels remarkably old for a few moments. He makes a show of reluctance as he raises his eyes to look at it, but isn’t quite able to keep the sudden surprise from his face when he sees the picture.

They are, indeed, kissing, framed on all sides by grass that Levi hadn’t known was dotted with patches of clover until he was seeing it from this angle. But the most unusual thing is the linked ring of daisies circling his own head. Not quite able to believe it, he reaches up to his head, and there is, in fact, a daisy chain resting there.

“Isn’t it great?” Eren asks, pulling the phone close to his chest like he’s oh-so-proud of himself, and Levi drags a hand over his eyes and shakes his head, smiling. “No? You don’t think so?”

“I think I’m in love with the stupidest person on the planet,” Levi sighs out, almost on accident, and as soon as Eren’s body goes still with realization, Levi is sure his own heart turns to ice in his chest.

Fuck.

Shit.

He wasn’t supposed to say that _out loud_.

“You love me?”

A beat.

Two.

Well, he already fucking said it. Whatever happens next is going to happen even if he spends the next month denying ever having said anything close to what he said.

He sighs.

“Well, there isn’t anyone else stupid enough to put me in a flower crown, right?” Levi lifts his hand, finally gathering the courage to at least try and look at Eren, and Eren doesn’t look disgusted or like he might find an excuse to get up and leave any time soon. Instead, there’s this warm look in his eyes that makes Levi’s neck hot, and the hint of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth that promises to bring something bigger.

Eren presses his nose into Levi’s neck, arm wrapping tightly around him, and for a second Levi forgets how much he hates this fucking grass.

“Nah, guess not.” Eren’s words make goosebumps where they brush against Levi’s bare skin. “I guess I’m in love enough to chance it.”

Levi hides his smile in Eren’s hair and mutters, “Idiot.”


	13. Warm-Up #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the opposite end of the bus stop is a witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [march 2, 2017](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/157917712055/decided-to-do-warm-up-drabbles-before-i-sit-down)  
>  **word count:** 584 words  
>  set in the [by the wick of a candle](http://archiveofourown.org/series/460852) verse
> 
> I originally said I was going to keep my warm-ups strictly on tumblr, but. :x I'm a giant liar. that being said, I update these drabble collections basically never so. lol. same difference?

The rain shouldn’t come as a surprise. The sky has been a pale, disheartening grey for the better part of a week, but when nothing continued to come from it, most people—Levi included—had stopped thinking the rain would inevitably come. They were just a few cloudy days, a welcome respite after an unseasonably warm October and hopefully the beginning of the chilly weather that fall was generally known and loved for.

As Levi walks briskly down the quickly dampening sidewalk, thinking forlornly of the umbrella propped up next to the door of his apartment, he finds himself annoyingly surprised. It seems those weak, pale clouds had a storm in them, after all.

Around the corner is a bus stop that Levi always passes on his walk home, and he speeds to a run so that he can slip under the protective cover of its plastic awning. The rain is louder under here, a constant _tink-tink-tink-tink_ , and Levi can almost imagine that the sound is coming from the rivers of water dripping from his hair, his clothes, his fingertips.

There’s a low whistle beside him, and Levi turns with a start to see that he’s not the only person seeking shelter there.

At the opposite end of the bus stop is a witch.

Well, not _really_. It’s some guy dressed as a witch, pointy hat and old-timey broom and all. Levi can catch the faint smell of cinnamon.

“Forgot your umbrella?” The witch asks, his grin revealing two rows of perfect teeth, and Levi blinks, slowly.

“No, I just enjoy jogging in the rain in business casual,” he responds, dryly, one eyebrow quirked as if to say _are you a fucking dumbass?_  The guy snorts, rubbing a finger under his cold-reddened nose.

“Hey, I’m not one to judge what you like to do in your free time,” the guy counters in that same casual, easy-going way, like he isn’t stranded beneath a bus awning in the middle of the night. He shoves his hands in his pockets, peeking out of their shelter a bit so that rain drops ricochet off the brim of his witch’s hat. Levi nearly asks him to take it off—he looks fucking ridiculous. “Kind of sucks, right? Rain on Halloween?”

Oh. Right. It’s Halloween. Levi’s never really been a _holidays_  sort of person, and Halloween was something he never really did as a child and therefore never had the chance to outgrow.

At least it explains the costume. He feels a little better knowing that he’s not stuck under here with some nut-job.

“Not big on Halloween?” The witch barrels on in the space of Levi’s silence.

“It’s childish.” Levi looks at the guy’s costume pointedly, and is surprised when he gets a laugh in return.

“And here I thought you were in the spirit, dressed as a vampire and everything.” Again, his grin is toothy, and Levi thinks that his costume was a poor choice. No one would ever believe that a sunshine-smile guy like this was a witch.

“Clever,” Levi drawls. Because he’s never heard the _vampire_  thing before.

“I’m Eren.” _Eren_  shuffles his cinnamon broom to rest against his shoulder so that he can stretch a hand into the no-man’s space between them. It’s too far for Levi to be able to stretch across and meet it, so he has to heave a resigned sigh and take the few steps to close the gap.

“Levi.” Not that he cares.

Not that it matters.

(But he doesn’t move away.)


	14. Twinkly Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving in together is one of the first things that Eren does with any amount of hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **originally posted:** [march 23 2017](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/158758572780/someone-stringing-twinkle-lights-around-the)  
>  **word count:** 1k words  
>  **prompt:** Someone stringing twinkle lights around the bedroom they share with their partner?  
>  **prompted by:** brambledown
> 
> part of the "[it's dangerous to go alone (take this)](http://archiveofourown.org/series/445441)" verse

Levi would never describe anything Eren does as a _trickle_. Eren is a river, a waterfall, a storm. He crashed upon Levi’s life like a wave, filling in every crack and crevice he could find as fast as possible—the big ones, Levi knew about; the small ones, Eren helped him discover.

Moving in together is one of the first things that Eren does with any amount of hesitation.

It makes the most sense for Eren to move into Levi’s apartment—Eren shares a two-bedroom with three other people and is another hour on top of Levi’s 45 minute commute to work. And, if he’s being perfectly honest with himself, he likes the idea of Eren integrating himself into the space. Has stared a little too long and a little too fondly at the extra toothbrush that started living on his bathroom vanity three months ago, when the idea of waking up to Eren every morning stopped making him quite so uneasy.

So yeah, okay, Levi’s been looking forward to looking around and seeing Eren’s possessions all mixed in with his. Wants to reach into a kitchen cabinet and grab a mug and have it be one of the stupid, kitschy, novelty ones that Eren loves so much and not one of the generic, buy-in-a-set-of-8 slate grey ones his mother got him as a housewarming gift over a decade ago.

Except… It’s taking a lot longer than Levi expected. Eren dutifully moves all of his things in, stacks them in the cleared out extra bedroom, and proceeds to… Not unpack. The space that Levi made in his closet for Eren’s things stays empty. The boring mugs he’d moved to the top shelf are now a pain in the ass to retrieve because there is no Snoopy mug staring at him from a conveniently reachable place. When he gets home from work, there is nothing to signify that someone else lives there. Sure, Eren’s shoes are neatly lined up by the door and he’s generally lounging on the couch playing video games, but he’d done that stuff before they actually lived together.

It’s almost like Eren thinks he’s going to take it back.

(…it’s _exactly_  like Eren thinks he’s going to take it back, the fucking brat.)

Like Levi would have _asked_  him if it’s not something he had thought through, thoroughly, for _weeks_. As if it’s not something he wants more than he’s willing to admit, even to himself. It reminds Levi, frustratingly, of himself, and how he’d spent the first six months of their relationship waiting for Eren to break-up with him. Except he hadn’t, obviously, because here they are, now, and all it had taken really was… Well, time.

So Levi gives Eren time. And, eventually, things do start to change. Eren has to wash his clothes and when Levi helps him put them away, he purposefully puts Eren’s folded jeans into a drawer and hangs his jacket in the closet. They don’t talk about it, but soon there are less boxes in the guest room and all of Eren’s clothes are in Levi’s—in _their_  closet and dressers.

Eren’s gaming equipment comes out piece by piece, as he needs and uses it, overpowering Levi’s not-quite-large-enough media unit until he’s reminding Eren that they cleared out the guest room _for a reason_  and they go out and buy him a proper desk. After the desk there’s several shelving units for all his games and guides that Levi dutifully organizes, and a chair, and then Eren is unpacking lights and streaming equipment and the room becomes more what it’s supposed to be and less a place to store towers of boxes.

It’s a trickle, slow and steady, until two months later Levi does open his cabinet and see a mug shaped like a Hulk fist right in front of him (but makes his tea in a UCSB one, instead). When he walks through the door, there’s a Link figurine holding up his old poetry anthologies from college and Eren napping on the couch under his old Pokéball comforter.

And then all the boxes are gone, and Levi comes home one night to find Eren standing barefoot on their bed, pins held carefully between his teeth, securing strands of twinkly lights around the edge of the entire room. When he sees Levi, his eyes go wide, and he’s letting the pins fall into his open palm and saying, “I took a shower and moved all the pillows before I did anything.”

Then he says, “If you hate it, we can take them down.”

And he’s staring at Levi, one hand held out placatingly, but Levi is looking more at the very last box, open on the floor, with the very last of Eren’s possessions—the special ones, the ones that mean the most, the ones Eren had been waiting to mix in with Levi’s things because he’d still been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He remembers the lights from Eren’s bedroom in his apartment. Levi hadn’t really understood the point, but he’d also never really stayed over at Eren’s old apartment (see: had three roommates) and therefore never really saw them in action. But… He knows that they make Eren happy. That he’d said something about seeing hipster bedroom pictures online and trying to imitate them. That it made his sometimes mundane life seem a little more magical.

“Let me change my socks,” Levi says, loosening his tie. “I’ll help.”

That night, when Eren falls asleep, hands curled in the small space between his and Levi’s bodies, Levi looks at him and the way the small, twinkling lights dance across his eyelashes, the apples of his cheeks, his bare shoulder, and finds aching warmth rather than any kind of regret.

(Later, down the line, with a ring burning a hole in his pocket and a hummingbird in place of his heart, Levi will remember that moment as he strings thousands of those tiny lights along the ceiling of their apartment, hoping they still remind Eren of magic.)

**Author's Note:**

> [send me prompts on tumblr? (◡‿◡✿) ](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
